Mermaid

From ancient times to the present day there are stories about humanoid beings that live on water. Description and situation of the meetings differ in particulars, but General features can merge them into a single phenomenon of "mermaid".

It is believed that the roots of the legends of mermaids date back to the mighty Babylonian deities associated with the sun and the Moon. The Babylonians believed that the Sun and the Moon, ending its daily journey across the vault of the sky plunged into the sea. The God of the Sun Oannes was the body of a person, his crown was made from fish head, and the robe of fish scales. Oannes gradually supplanted the God EA, is already half fish-half human, and we can assume that the origin in Greek mythology myths about mermen, causing winds and storms associated with it. And the moon goddess Atargatis, half woman-half fish, was the forerunner of the mermaids.

In Greek mythology there were also sea creatures, polariy-polozheniy. They were called Serena. They represented the charming but deceptive sea surface, under which hides sharp rocks or shoals.

In addition, in Greek mythology described the sea deity, daughter of Nereus and the oceanid Doris, in appearance resembling the Slavic mermaids.

It is impossible to give an exact historical period when Slavic Nations came ideas about mermaids. It is believed that the word "mermaid" is derived from the name of the feast of the commemoration of the ancestors – the Mermaids (lat. rosalia), the first mention of which is contained in the Laurentian chronicle (under 1068). It was thought that in these days of a mermaid out of the water and they can get in contact.

Later, in the 16th century, in Russia there are characters that differ from the traditional humanoid Slavic mermaids. Spirits of water, who "from the head to the waist of a person, from waist to feet somany splash" and are descended from the Egyptians who drowned in the red sea in pursuit of the troops of the "Pharaoh's fierce" for Moses and the Jews during the Exodus. Their horses turned into palakona of Polaris. It's the damn dead people with a dull and husky magical voice, destined to stay in this form until the end of the world. They were called "Faraoni".

In Japanese mythology there is a description of the immortal beings such as fish Ning. In ancient times it was described as a creature with a human face, a monkey with a mouth full of small teeth, a fish tail and a shiny Golden scales. The training session had a quiet voice similar to the singing lark or the sound of the flute. His meat had a pleasant taste, and those who tasted it, reached extraordinary longevity. However, catching a Ningyo are believed to bring storms and bad, so fishermen who caught these creatures, let them back into the sea. The ning, beached, was an omen of war or disaster.

In Western Europe it was widely believed that Maritime maidens have no souls, and that they want to acquire it, but can't find the strength to leave the sea. There is a legend Dating from the V century, in which the mermaid, wishing to gain a soul, daily visited the monk on a small island near Scotland, and prayed with him. But the virgin of the sea was not able to leave the sea, and tears has gone into it.

Also in Scottish and Irish mythology there are creatures called Selkies, a human — like seals that have some similarities with the sea maidens.

In various sources from ancient times, there were reports about a meeting with sea virgins or similar creatures, prepodnosyaschy as true stories.

XII century
In the Icelandic annals Speculum Regale (XII century) there is mention of the beast "margin" that lives off the coast of Greenland. The description is typical of the virgin of the sea — to the waist looks like a woman with long hands and soft hair, from the waist down she has the tail of a fish, scales and fins.

In an English chronicle, there is mention of a "sea person" ugly appearance, caught in 1187 on the coast of Suffolk.

XV century
A well known story has lived for some time on land a sea maiden. It is reported that in the early fifteenth century in Holland, a storm destroyed the dam and the sea flooded the land. Local residents found stuck in the shallow waters of the sea the virgin and took her to his own. They taught her to wear clothes, eat human food, knitting, bow to the cross, but failed to teach to speak. The mermaid lived on land for fifteen years. When she died, she was buried according to Christian tradition. This story is retold in the book of Sigo de La Background "Wonders of nature, or a Collection of unusual and note worthy events and adventures in the world of bodies, alphabetic order located".

Christopher Columbus during his first voyage (1492-1493) wrote that he saw off the coast of Guiana three sea maidens.

XVII century
In the ship's log Henry Hudson, who he was, floating near the shores of the New world, there is a record of what his two sailors, Thomas hills and Robert Rayner, 15 Jun 1608 saw a Sea maiden. They told the captain that from the navel up her chest and back were as a woman, she had very white skin and long black hair, and her tail was like a Dolphin tail. There is a record in the logbook of Henry Hudson:

Today one of the members of the expedition noticed aboard the mermaid, and called his comrades to look at her. All the while the mermaid swam close to the ship, it is strictly looked at the people. Then we swam into the open sea and somersault several times. When the mermaid dived, the men examined her tail. It resembled the tail of a Dolphin, but was speckled like a mackerel.

The captain of the English Navy Richard Wilburn wrote in his memoirs that in 1610 he first met a strange creature in the Harbor of St. John in Newfoundland. The creature had a proportional and beautiful female face, on his head were many blue stripes, like hair. The upper part of the creature was human, the lower Whitburn not seen. The creature has behaved quite friendly. When it tried to climb into the boat by the sailors, he was hit on the head with an oar, since it was watching people from afar.

There is a legend about Francisco dela VEGA Casar, who lived allegedly in Lierganes (Cantabria) and from childhood showed the ability to swim better than others. In 1674 he during bathing were carried away in the strong currents and went missing. In February 1679 near the Bay of Cadiz fishermen caught the humanoid observed for several days in water. The creature looked like a tall man with pale skin and red hair. It had scales down its back and along the belly. Between the toes was brown membrane. It was noted that he roared and growled; twelve men were required to hold it. Three weeks being spent in the monastery of the Franciscans, where it produced the rite of exorcism. In January 1680 he was taken to the Asturias, where the mother of the missing Francisco and his brothers recognized the merits of his son and brother. When he lived in the village, we ate raw meat or fish, almost never spoke. In 1682, fled back to the sea.

In 1682, near the town of Sestri (Italy), was caught by a "marine man". "He lived only a few days, crying and emitting plaintive cries, and all this time there was nothing to eat or drink".

XVIII century
In some edition of 1717 was a depiction of the creature that resembles the sea maiden, of whom it is written that it was caught on the coast of Borneo, in the administrative district Amboyna. In length the creature was 1.5 meters, "a body like eel." Lived on the land a little more than four days in a barrel of water from food refused. Periodically produced squeaking sounds.

In 1737 in the journal the Gentleman's Magazine was written that near the English city of Exter fishermen pulling ashore the network, found that it confused an unknown creature with a length of 1.2 m with a tail "like a salmon" and beat him with sticks. "This creature, dying, moaning like a man. Eyes, nose and mouth it was too like a man. The nose, however, was slightly flattened". The body was exhibited at Exeter.
Journal Scot''s magazine for 1739 reported that the crew of Halifax was caught on the coast of the island of Mauritius a few humanoid sea maidens, fried and ate them. They their meat compared with beef.

XIX century
8 September 1809, in the newspaper the Times was printed the message a school teacher that twelve years ago, on the way from the city of Sorso County (Caithness) in the direction in Sensig head (North Scotland) he saw in the sea a mermaid. Reminiscent of a naked woman, she sat on the hard, jutting out of the sea cliff brushed by her light brown hair, and then dived into the sea and was seen no more. An eyewitness described her indistinguishable from a human being and expressed the hope that his message will help science.

In 1819, in Ireland, in the surf, near the shore, I noticed a sea maiden. On the shore began to gather many people, until one of them shot at the creature "with piercing cry and went under water".

In 1830, on the island of Benbecula in the Hebrides (UK) locals collecting seaweed, noticed in the water near the shore, the creature, "representing a kind woman, only in miniature." After unsuccessful attempts to catch him, someone launched a stone at him. Few days to the shore at a distance of 3 km from the scene nailed the corpse of an unknown creature. A local resident so he was described: "the Upper part of this creature was as well well-fed child of three or four years, but with abnormally developed Breasts. Hair - long, dark and shiny, skin white and soft. The lower part of the body was a tail, like a salmon, but without scales". Many people witnessed the presence of this corpse, the local Sheriff Duncan Shaw was ordered to sew for him a shroud and make the coffin. This story is described in the Carmina Gadelica by Alexander Carmichael (1900).

31 Oct 1881 in American Newspapers wrote that on the shore was found an unknown creature. A reporter for Boston Newspapers, he observed the corpse, described it as "Above the waist it is a complete likeness of a woman. Below the waist the body of this being is totally the same as mullet," but in the hands of the creatures were not nails, and claws like an eagle.

In 1890 the mermaids noticed the three near the Orkney Islands near Scotland. In one of the bays of a mermaid seen by hundreds of witnesses. In the words of one of them passed a newspaper reporter, "...it was six or seven feet tall, black, white body, two arms, and when she is in the water, you might think that this floating man. Several times she was located, obviously, on a submerged rock, and then it was possible to see the movement of her hands and as she waved her hand".

Mermaids are found not only in ancient myths and Chronicles, but also in the contemporary true stories and eyewitness accounts.

Several times noticed the mermaids in 1913 in Lyman Portland, near the island of hoy, Orkney Islands, too.

Another mermaid had been observed in 1926 in the United States, in a Creek that emptied into the Mississippi. In any case, sir, under the Windows who proceeded the brook, complained to the newspaper on anxiety, which was causing this person not only him but also the drivers driving along the coast highway.

In 1978, 15 July, the Australian newspaper "Melbourne sun" printed a note on the fisherman, the Filipino, who, when he pulled the chain, suddenly became to help mermaid, emerging from the water.

Now stories about the meeting with the mysterious mermaids had become more infrequent, but still exist to this day.

The phenomenon has two different manifestations: a humanoid creature and a humanoid creature with a fish tail. As mentioned above, each of these species originates from the mythology of certain peoples. For example, in Slavic and Greek folklore, they had the appearance of humanoid creatures, mostly female, living in the pond. Often this was considered the spirit taking a form. The peoples of Europe, Japan, and in the Greek and Slavic folklore there was a description of people with a fish tail that lives in the pond.

The behavior of both types of creatures completely diverse from complete indifference to man to the action, which could lead to a threat to life and health. However, if you do a certain ritual, or simply to help such a creature, it can repay in the response after completing the request.

Beings of both kinds are ordinary "human" life. For example, in one of the true stories indicated that mermaid on the shore of the washed cloth, and seeing that she was being watched, dived into the water and disappeared.

Often witnesses determine that they face an unknown creature, only by circumstantial evidence, often seeing glimpses of him. For example:

I was fishing on the boat. The corner of my eye see in the water the shadow of the big one. Thought the fish and looked hair flashed. Decided – girl dives. Was waiting for that to pop up next to someone, but never came. Still don't know what it was.
Constantine, Voronezh oblast

It is evident that the ground on which the creature was alleged to be unknown – "women's hair, but did not come up to breathe," which is an unnatural behavior. Sometimes being able to see, and then, in addition to unnatural behaviour, there is a strange appearance, such as excessive paleness or other abnormal color of the body.

She sits, white as a sheet, I have her hand grabbed and she was cold. I hand straightened, and she jumped and disappeared.

Suwestvuet a number of hypothesesthat attempt to explain this phenomenon. They vary by type of evidence.

Hoaxes and fakes
These include mainly pictures of the mummy, the living entities and similar tangible evidence.

Hallucinations and errors of perception
These include testimony without material evidence. This category can be attributed to ordinary beings living on our planet, who were mistakenly taken for unknown. For example, it is widely believed that the stories about the sea maidens is inspired by the observation of animals such as sirens (dugongs, sea cows, and manatees), dolphins and pinnipeds, allegedly from a distance indistinguishable from humans. In particular, it is believed that sea cow eating kelp, may be similar to the grey of the man-foxy fish with green hair.

Mystic
There are also a number of mystical hypotheses that attempt to explain this phenomenon:

• Alien beings who settled in the pond.
• A parallel race of people that went with us in the evolution, having adapted to life in water.
• The spirits that protect the water and living in it – embodied the souls of the dead with their boots on.
• Werewolves that turn into creatures.

Also there is a hypothesis, not related to any of the above categories and apply to all types of evidence. According to her, there are some living organisms (animals), similar to the mythical mermaids that live near us, but scientists have not yet discovered them, and not described for any reason (for example, due to the small number of individuals).

The theme of water residents – one of the few in which you can find not only the eyewitnesses, but also a variety of material evidence suitable for research. Despite this, scientists still have not discovered evidence of the existence of living creatures that could be compared with the mythological mermaids. Severely hampered calm perception of eyewitness accounts of a large number of fakes and hoaxes, but this is all about the "unexplained" and "mermaids" in this sense is not original.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»